Help me figure this out, Ubuntu 9.04

Trying to install on a Asus G50-Vt. I have it setup in Raid o right now in the raid utilities. I was reading I have to add dmraid=true during the boot up menu for it to work. I have added that line in the title screen when I tell it to boot up in live CD mode but so far It has been BAD. When Ubuntu starts it will lock up in a few minutes and stop responding. If I go into the bios disable the RAID and tell it to boot in compability, Ubuntu works fine and sees both of the hard drives. My guess I am adding this dmraid=true line wrong and thats why it's not working. After I boot of the Ubuntu CD I press F6 and I see all the boot options at the bottom, and at the very end of the line I just add dmraid=true. Any help will be much appretiated. Thanks

 

Maybe hit Tab at the installer boot screen and see what you have there? See this thread.

 

Thanks when I press tab at the screen where I have options on install or live cd, nothing happens. Cant figure you wheren to put this dmraid=true at.

 

There should be a small line of text that appears.

 

I see the line of info at the bottom. When I add the info, do I need to do -- or something else. At the end right now I am just adding it by itself and its not working.

 

You might need the alternate installer CD according to this.

 

Thats for method 1 and I was hoping I could get it to work under method 2. Now I finally Added dmraid=true and got it to boot up in LIVE CD mode and its not crashing. With following this guide, https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto#Method 1

I get to the point of listing the hard drives using this command

ls -l /dev/mapper/

This is what I get

total 0
crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 61 2009-06-20 14:37 control
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 0 2009-06-20 18:47 isw_bfdjgfhgi_G50VT
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 1 2009-06-20 18:47 isw_bfdjgfhgi_G50VT1


SO its actually seeing the hard drives but , I can get to the next step.
says to create the partitions using this

sudo cfdisk /dev/mapper/isw_beeaakeeaa_five

I get FAtal error cant open drives.

So back to the drawing board ;/ ...

 

Hm, well I installed using the Debian netinstall on my G50V using dmraid=true, then used manual partitioning. Since the Ubuntu Alternate Install is basically the same as the Debian installer, I would think that should work. Just get the alternate installer and save the headache...

 

WEll guys I ttried the install icon and when gparted loaded, it sees my Raid and seems to let me part it how I want it. Right now I have 8 GB for swap, 25 for root and the remaining 607gb as home. Im at the point of no return, I am scared if I commit to the changes when Ubuntu reboots and have something wrong, it wont reconize the raid and I will be SOL. What ya guys think??

 

8GB for swap is ridiculous lol! You don't even need a swap, but if you're going to make one 2GB is fine. Other than that, full steam ahead!

 

AlluGroceries you set a linux box on a G50? IF you have that will be a life saver! You will probably have lots of answers. Going to change the swap to 2 gig, but for some reason I read you want your swap to be twice the size of the mem.

 

Yeah I'm on my G50V now running 64 bit Debian Sid.

I added a lot of stuff to the linlap wiki entry for the G50: http://www.linlap.com/wiki/asus+g50v

Also there's a howto guide that is very helpful for configuration: http://monalisa.cern.ch/blog/2008/09/16/ubuntu-on-asus-g50v/

Hope this helps

Edit: Swap isn't a big deal when you've got 4GB of RAM... Having twice the amount of RAM is pretty oldschool. Recently the recommendation was to match your swap size to RAM, but these days you'll rarely (if ever) need swap with so much RAM.

 

Doh during the partitioning, it crash, I must have had something wrong. AllUrgroceries, i might go ahead and try you way next. Dont know what else to try, I tought I had it but no go..

 

Give the Alternate Installer a try, it should work. I'm not sure what's going wrong, if you hit Ctrl+Alt+F3 you will have a log of messages from the installer, to look for clues. Then to get back to the installer I think it's Alt+F7, it could be F8, I forget exactly which.

 

downloading it as we speak, I have never done the alternate installer before. I have always been able to get everything working of the live CD version before. On a note, I have never tried to setup raid on linux before. So time to try this approach, Do you remember where about you add the DMraid=true and anything else I have to do? Thanks again for all of your help..

 

For Ubuntu it looks like you have to hit F6 and then ESC and then type a space and dmraid=true then hit enter.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions#Changing%20the%20Boot%20Option%20Configuration%20Line

 

ok trying it now, wish me luck ..

 

Good luck! Just a note dmraid=true should all be in lowercase

 

WOOHOO Allurgroceries, so far its working, it saw the raid right away and it still had the layout of the partitions from before. Its working its formatting right now as I type this. IF you are in the Atlanta area, amigo Ill take you out to lunch. I am sure I will big you with more questions as I use this more and more.

 

Awesome, check out that howto I linked to earlier for the configuration to start, and then the linlap wiki entry. You'll need to get the Intel firmware installed for wireless to work, that is covered in the howto.

 

hmm i setup the partitions and after that, I get to the point of user names and passwords. At the end of typing the information it always fails and says for me to try again. With going and seeing the logs on F6 it looks like something is not right on the Raid format. It gives errors of either the required Raid set not found or more options required. HMM

I have done in the Raid utility and deleted the raid setup. Then set it up at Raid 0 and I am still getting the same result. If you all have any other ideas please let me know..

 

I FINALLY GOT IT!!! I am typing this on the Asus, I got some more issues to resolve atl least I got a working box with RAID! WOOHOO!!